A subtle key to human diversity

ANY article containing the words "race" and "genetics" tends to be controversial, and any scientific study researching the links between these concepts more so. Now a study of people of European, Chinese and Japanese descent has revealed distinctive patterns of gene activity in the different groups.

Critics of similar studies have long argued that it makes no scientific sense to link race and genetics, and not just because of the spectre of eugenics it evokes. The differences between the genomes of people of different ethnic origin are startlingly small, and what variation does exist is greater between individuals than between ethnic groups.

Though the new study's findings do not fundamentally change this, geneticists agree that the details we are learning about how genes are expressed in different ethnic groups could have huge medical benefits.

Richard Spielman at the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, and colleagues examined gene activity in a particular ...

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